 Gary and Simon are bank robbers. Gary’s the brains of the operation and Simon is the brawn. Well, not quite, as Simon’s so stupid that Gary doesn’t actually allow him to hold the gun or do anything exceptionally brawn-like. We can only suppose that it is a nepotism situation that has Simon along for the criminal endeavors Gary sets up.
Soon after watching Gary and Simon rehearsing a robbery in their car, we see security camera footage of them robbing a bank and racing away after they realize that they’ve been taped by the camera. From here they head to a rundown motel called, “Hotel Motel,” and check in to a room for the night. Unfortunately, the TV in their room doesn’t work right and seems to constantly be on the blink, so Gary leaves Simon in the room with the gun and instructions not to do anything stupid. From here, Gary peruses the halls until he locates an old woman who’s so high on illegal narcotics that he can steal her drugs and her television set without her coming to.
After this, everything gets a little rushed as Gary heads back toward their room, but decides to burst in on another room in which a man is getting a blow job. Meanwhile, Simon has started playing with the gun that he’s been forbidden to use, with predictably disastrous results.
From here, everything spins out of control for our protagonists, but manage to come together in an ending that benefits the least guilty of the duo. I won’t spoil the ending, both because it doesn’t need to be fixed and because there is no way I can describe it in a way that makes sense. Just take my word for it that it works in a strangely cooky way.
Content
The concept of this crime caper/black comedy works pretty well, fusing a strange heist with extremely fast paced editing and story speed. The acting is quite good, the dialogue is tight throughout the film, and the ending works well with the overall logic and setup of the rest of the film.
With that said, the one part of the content that doesn’t quite work for me is why Gary, after steeling the television from the drug-glazed woman would take time to try to burst in on another man’s room rather than going back to his own room and making sure Simon doesn’t get ahold of the gun. It seems to me that Gary and Simon are supposed to be keeping a low profile and Gary assaulting someone else in their room would be the opposite of keeping a low profile.
Other than that one complaint however, everything else makes sense in the spirit of this film.
Visual Look
In a word: Wow. The visual style of this film is pretty amazing.
If I had to compare Mr. Wannenmacher’s style to anyone’s it would be a fusion of the frenetic pace of Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels) with the surreal perspective of Darren Arronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi). Extreme close ups of things like money being slammed into a table and keys being pushed into the camera along with the fast editing pace of this film were the most Ritchie-esque elements. Meanwhile, green tinting in the room with the drug-addled Granny Crack, the style of the hallucinogenic drug haze she is in, and a body-mounted camera of her storming after the hoodlum who stole her drugs toward the end were the most Arronofsky-esque elements.
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